


the goodness of her heart

by thedevilchicken



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Matchmaking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-23 19:32:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17086382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken
Summary: Charles is fairly convinced that Emma didn't set him up with Erik for altruistic reasons.





	the goodness of her heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [afrocurl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/gifts).



If he's honest about it, Charles knows she didn't set them up together out of the goodness of her heart. 

Emma's not exactly that kind of person, full to the brim with charity and altruism. A large number of the people they both know aren't exactly fond of her for that precise reason, but Charles has always found it strangely refreshing: Emma doesn't try to pretend she cares about his classes or his students or about the grant proposal he's in the process of writing, except where it might affect her own; she doesn't try to act like she has any concern at all for his personal life, either, except when she wants him to try a new restaurant with her, or lend her his car for a weekend away. He knows exactly where he stands with her, and that's something he appreciates. 

She didn't set them up out of the goodness of her heart. She set them up because she likes to play games, manoeuvering the pieces into place and watching how it all falls out, if it goes to plan or takes on a twist she didn't expect. He doesn't need to read her mind to know she did it because she thought it would be a total and utter disaster, and that would make better entertainment than any BBC drama she might watch in the evening with a large glass of wine. She did it to see what would happen. It wasn't for either of them at all.

If he's honest about it, Charles knew that at the time, too. Oh-so-innocently, over dinner one night at the new Thai place it turned out he liked and she hated, she mentioned she'd met someone she thought he might find interesting. He was intrigued, but only because she'd never said anything like that to him before, so he really had to wonder why she was saying it then. Oh-so-innocently, over dinner one night not long after that, at the old Thai place she loved and he put up with because he knew she loved it, she wrote a date and a time and the name of a pub on the back page of his notebook. He was intrigued, because he didn't need to read her mind to know that she was plotting something. He should have said no but a few days later, when the appointed day came, he found himself walking into that pub. 

There was no name with the rest of the information she'd printed so neatly in the back of his book; she'd told him he'd know who he was looking for when he arrived. When a man walked in, looking just as lost as he was, Charles realized she hadn't said a single word about his blind date's gender. He chuckled under his breath, and he shook his head, and he took his barely-started pint across the room. 

"This is going to sound strange if you're not," Charles said, "but are you here because Emma Frost sent you?" 

"So this is Emma's idea of a joke," the man replied, with a hint of a smile at his mouth. "I wondered what she was playing at." 

"You and me both," Charles said. "But since we're here now, can I buy you a drink?" 

The man shrugged. "Why not," he replied. He gestured at Charles's pint. "I'll have one of those." 

"I'll just be a minute." 

"I'll find a table." He paused. He gave a semi-amused huff and shook his head and then held out one hand. "Erik, by the way. Since I doubt she told you." 

Charles took his hand; they shook. "Charles," he replied. "And she didn't say a word."

When he found the table, a drink in each hand, and took a seat across from him, Charles expected they'd discuss exactly what Emma had been thinking, but they didn't. They had a drink and they talked, straddling uncomfortable pub stools, but it wasn't about Emma - they talked about their jobs and their departments, biology and politics respectively, and they disagreed loudly on almost every single point but he couldn't say the conversation wasn't lively at the very least. And, after three more drinks, and an argument, another drink, and then the pub calling last orders, Erik asked if he'd like to continue the conversation back at his place. 

He said it wasn't far, like distance was the primary consideration and not the little matter of attraction, and Charles laughed out loud and decided, well, why not. Erik was tall and blunt and Charles was surprised he found him intensely, fiercely, viscerally attractive, even if they could neither of them find a point to raise that didn't also raise debate. It wasn't the evening he'd expected, but he frankly hadn't known what to expect. It wasn't the evening he'd expected, but faced with Erik Lehnsherr it was difficult to see if that mattered at all. 

He woke up in the morning with a hangover the size of Scotland in a bed that distinctly wasn't his own. Erik was still dozing there beside him and he supposes it would've been easy to sneak out of the flat and escape the area on the next bus that happened by the bus stop he vaguely recalled was across the road, but that wasn't what he did. 

That wasn't what he did and that wasn't only because actually, nothing untoward had occurred the previous night except a heated discussion and a bottle of red wine that had tipped them over the edge into too drunk for anything else, except maybe a good night's sleep. It had been late by then, very late, so Erik had told him him to stay; Charles had said he'd sleep on the rather awkward-looking sofa but Erik had scowled and told him the bed was more than big enough for two. Charles, for his sins, had decided he'd slept on a number of sofas large enough to last him a lifetime or possibly two, and he followed him into the bedroom. At least Erik hadn't been kidding - the bed was definitely big enough for both of them. And, after a brief dry press of mouths and an ill-advised grope that left them both more amused than it did aroused, they'd gone to sleep. 

That morning, what was in Charles's head was just as ill-advised as what they'd almost done the night before, but when Erik woke and turned and looked at him in the half-light through the not very opaque curtains, it was difficult to think it was a terrible idea. Charles kissed him. Erik didn't object to that. He touched him. Erik didn't exactly object to that, either. He didn't object when Charles settled on top of him. He didn't object when Charles straddled his thighs. Erik didn't object to anything at all they did that morning, clothed or otherwise. 

Emma didn't set them up out of the goodness of her heart, possibly because Charles isn't sure if she has a lot of goodness in there; he sometimes suspects her heart is hard as a diamond, but that's not something he holds against her. She makes excellent company for nights out in restaurants and she remembers his birthday even if she doesn't usually wish him a happy one. They still spend more time together than the average married couple does, and have somehow managed to avoid driving each other completely out of their minds, or indeed anybody else's. They work well together, even if Charles knows that's because she believes in his abilities almost as much as she does her own; it's flattering, in a way. She's the best friend he has, because they understand each other's strengths and carefully sidestep their weaknesses. 

Charles knows she expected it to be a disaster and that's precisely why she set them up. She probably expected reports of the dreadful date from both of them, how they'd argued all night and couldn't stand each other, but the fact is they argued all night and they definitely _can_

stand each other. It's been seven months now, and sometimes he thinks he might enjoy the arguments almost as much as he enjoys the sex. It's been seven months now, and they still have so much left to disagree about that they really can't stop now. 

Charles knows she didn't do this out of the goodness of her heart. He knows that, because he knows the kind of person Emma is: she's sharp and she's smart and she's ambitious, and she does precisely as she pleases. He admires that in her, to a point.

She didn't do it for them and he knows it, even if she takes the credit. But that doesn't mean he can't be grateful for it anyway.


End file.
